I'm torn -- I love their food, but I also strongly support gay marriage and LGBT equal rights in general.

So I was thinking -- what to do? Maybe I'll donate to local LGBT groups if I eat there!

A friend suggested a couple of great local LGBT groups that are worthy of support: SMYAL and the DC Center. SMYAL has a number of programs for LGBTQ youth like mentoring, tutoring, support groups, trainings and more, and the DC Center is a community center that "eduacates, empowers, celebrates and connects" the community through a number of events and programs -- health projects, groups for families, religious people, LGBT people in the military, GLOV, the city's anti-gay violence task force, and a lot more.

But don't take my word for it! Read about the groups yourself, or suggest other good ones in the comments!

5 comments:

Rather than offsetting your personal guilt for eating there, how about saving the money you'd spend at Chick-fil-a (believe me, after not eating there for a while, you really don't miss it) and donating it instead? I really want them to find that Columbia Heights won't support a Chick-fil-a.

Man, I feel sorry for people who let politics invade their lives like this. Here's the reality: LGBT rights are advancing day by day regardless of what CFA's founders do. It has about zero bearing on the debate -- whether gays can marry or not will depend not at all on whether you buy a sandwich from CFA. So go enjoy some chicken.

Tax filings for 2012 showed that Chick-fil-A created a new foundation, the Chick-fil-A Foundation, to grant to outside groups. It funded only one previous group, Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Other filings for WinShape Foundation showed no funding for groups opposed to LGBT rights.

They've probably changed their behavior because of boycotts and bad publicity, so that worked... and if the boycotters had followed the author's suggestion to just keep going there and donate to a cause to absolve their feelings of guilt, it probably wouldn't've.

More of concern though, it's just another bad fast food restaurant coming to a strip already crowded with them. I'm not against fast food, but other options are so much better.